De Caire Off Campus Campaign Stages Disruption at McMaster

On August 29, members of the De Caire off Campus! Campaign disrupted the President’s of McMaster’s undergraduate address. Students distributed leaflets as two members of the coalition spoke about why the De Caire Off Campus! Campaign opposes De Caire, and the effect that a Director of Security and Parking like De Caire could have on new students at McMaster.

In December 2015, McMaster University hired former Hamilton police-chief Glenn De Caire for the position of Director of Security and Parking. We oppose De Caire because during his tenure as police chief he codified and encouraged racist practices among his officers, especially the practice known as “carding.” Carding in Hamilton disproportionately affected Black and Indigenous people; Black and Indigenous people were over four times more likely to be carded than white people in Hamilton. The Ontario Human Rights Commission stated that De Caire’s defense of carding constituted “a textbook description of racial profiling.” De Caire is also responsible for the creation of the ACTION police teams, which harass racialized, Indigenous, and working class people in the downtown core and act as the shock-troops of gentrification in Hamilton. More recently, a lawyer acting on behalf of De Caire contacted the McMaster student Newspaper, The Silhouette, and intimidated the newspaper by suggesting that an earlier article on De Caire’s hiring had contained defamatory statements; an accusation which the De Caire Off Campus! Campaign rejects. Given De Caire’s record, the De Caire Off Campus! Campaign believes that De Caire’s presence at McMaster is a threat to racialized and Indigenous, as well as a potential threat to campus activism.

The De Caire off Campus! Campaign was launched in late 2015, after De Caire was hired as the Directory of Security and Parking. The De Caire off Campus! Campaign demands that McMaster immediately remove DeCaire from his position. The De Caire Off Campus! Campaign is a coalition of a number of campus and community organizations including the McMaster Womanists, the Revolutionary Student Movement, and the Young Communist League. Our first meeting for the Fall 2016 semester will be on September 12, at 7PM, in the McMaster University Student Centre, Room 220.